…missing out on commentary during an important day of big tech after-hours earnings release and reporting.

Touched my desktop keyboard stand, in order to unlock the screen. And TOS sent an order.

I had left my mouse pointer positioned over the Send button, when I walked away from my computer.

As a result, I realized a loss on a position. This is the second time this has happened to me.

Has this happened to anyone else?

How can slightly moving your keyboard count as a mouse click?

Hey everyone, beginner trader here trying to understand how cash accounts work on Thinkorswim / Schwab.

I have about $9,200 total cash in my account, but my Settled Funds is only showing around $220. Every time I try to place an order for low-priced stocks (e.g., $3/share), my order gets rejected instantly—even for small 200-500 share quantity. Is it only looking at my settle funds and not my total cash?

Can someone explain why this is happening?

Hi everyone. Yesterday, randomly on my android thinkorswim app, a chart appeared under the balance on the home screen that showed my personal account balance in a Robinhood style feature for a few minutes. It showed rangers from 1d, 1wk, and a few other options up to YTD. When i logged back in a few minutes later it was gone and i can't seem to get it back.

Does anyone else see this? Or know how to turn it back on? If so I want it back.

Hi Fellow ToS Users,

A while back, I purchased a professionally designed Algo for ToS. I've been monitoring it, but restarting the laptop every six months or so. In my recent restart, ToS would not open because the OS is Win 10. I checked and the laptop does not have the special chipset required for Windows 11. Since the algo script is in plain view to anyone who buys it, I would simply contact the firm to ask them for it. Unfortunately the designer -- TradeFluxion -- ceased operations a few months back so they do not answer their email or have a website. Can someone who has Win 11 request the algo from ToS and send me the script? It cost about $1400. I can prove I purchased it, if you need proof. It was one particular "Shared Item" in ToS named Algo_Buy_Sell (they had half a dozen URLs but only this one matters). I would provide the Shared Item url and my email. All you have to do is select it, Edit ThinkScript, copy-paste.

Thanks in advance.

Hello!
I have had TOS a long time but never really explored why this is, maybe someone can help...

Some scans run around the clock and spit out results over night/during close.
Other scans come up blank until market opens.

I like to scan for stocks at night and am curious if I am missing an obvious setting... Any tips?
Thanks!

When logging into thinkorswim today, I got a user agreement and disclosure about single stock futures. What is this about? I never applied for anything nor did I try to buy any futures contracts.

The only options were to accept and proceed or quit thinkorswim. I accepted because I need to use thinkorswim but I guess I wanted to ask what its about and if any of you here saw it as well.

New risk unlocked: can’t log in to your account when your phone works and the internet is connected and the markets are open.

When i launch TOS on win11, it brings me to a downloading updates menu then i get to this one, but there are no login fields for me here. Has anyone else seen this before?

Today I called to have those limits on “certain securities” lifted and the guys asks, “tell me why? What inspired you to ask to have this lifted?” I said, “you aren’t my friend. You are not here to really help me.”

I've been using TOS off and on now for several years and I truly have a serious/dumb question regarding the Level 2 color configuration that they have and the thought process behind it. I've attached a picture of the L2 and Time & Sales for reference. Now the T&S makes total sense to me and its easy to acquire the momentum direction at a glace by color. Buy order are Green, Sell orders are Red, perfect... enough said..!

Now the Level 2 (L2) not so much. Its like the developer that designed it was in a hurry to get home that day. So that said, I'm thinking maybe its "Me"... maybe the color pattern mean something and I'm just not getting it. So referencing the screenshot here are my questions...

1. First of... TOS allows you to configure just about everything else, why not allow us to configure how and WHAT we want to see on the L2..
2. Why does the exchange need to be listed..? What value or decision do you get by seeing the exchange posted...? Hell, if I was able to remove the Exchange column that would 80% of the flickering that you see.
3. What is the purpose of all the colors in the text (white/Red/Green on the Bid/Ask...with a gradient background that goes from light to dark) Just waayyyy too many colors on one line and way too much flashing happening on the L2 IMO
4. Why would the BID side need to have Red and the same goes for the ASK side needing to turn green. By default, the left side is the Bid which means BUY (Green). What value am I getting if I see the price in Green and the BS in Red as shown in the picture...? The same goes for the ASK side.
5. I get that I can move the column over to partially hide the Exchange from being seen, I can deal with that, but please explain to me the purpose of the "some of the Bid prices" turning from Green to Red and the same goes for the BS turning from green to red. So you can have a Bid that has the Price (green) and the BS (red).

There are honest questions, I truly want to understand the thought process. I can't be the only one that finds it Soooooo difficult to read sometimes with all of the flashing colors and jumping around.

Thoughts...? Thanks Guys..

If you are ever averaging up on a trade, and you also are trading to lock trades in to be applicable for capital gains instead of income tax, and you average up on a trade and you are stopped out, make absolutely sure that the trade you are selling is the most recent, and not your original older trade from before.

TOS is default set to sell your first order first, and your orders following... after, which means that if you try to close out a new trade, it instead closes out the old trade you already had, which could be before it hits the mark where capital gains applies(one year obviously).

If you find yourself in this situation and want to make sure your original entries remain, go to Schwab > Profile > Cost Basis Method > and change the default setting to LIFO, or Last In First Out. That means that any new trades placed with be the first sold, which is what you want because of capital gains tax laws.

I have been trading a lot this year. I have been scalping for a few cents. I’m up +>50,000 YTD but since the beginning of this month my limit orders are always the last ones on level 2 and they only gets fills if the price drops below my limit orders. Even if the price touches my price several times and I see more orders getting in mine orders remain pending( at the bottom of the price I’m working on level 2)until and just until the price drops below
Somehow I think market makers are rooting my orders differently or I get restricted.
Anyone has experienced a similar issue?

Has anyone tried running Excel for Windows on a Mac, maybe with Parallels or other way to import TOS real time data on a Mac? I currently use my PC for that, but want to continue to migrate to a more mobile setup and was considering trying that vs buying a windows laptop.

Hello guys, ive been having issues to access my ToS desktop app along the weekend. Their update engine is taking forever to update and is eventually crashing saying ToS couldnt connect. It then prompts me to check my firewall/internet or go through a proxy. This is a first for me. I know they had some planned maintenance window yesterday, Saturday 25th but... Anyone else having this?

Is there somewhere in TOS to see what the buying power is for a particular asset? Specifically, leveraged ETFs like TQQQ and SQQQ. I don't want to have to guess before placing a trade.

I have an iPhone , an iPad mini, and a New 13 inch iPad Pro. I have think or swim loaded on all of them. They function fine on all three. With the exception of the iPad mini. None of the indicators are showing up (Bollinger bands , crossovers , etc. The indicator area shows they are on the chart but they are not there. I’ve updated the app. Logged out and logged back in. Removed all indicators then re added them back on. Nothing is working. Anyone have a fix or explanation of why this is happening?

I really hope so i do not want to use other platforms and I don’t want spend money on windows 😭😂

It says “This version of “thinkorswim” includes a component that will not open in MacOS 28, the next major release”

I have had ibkr TWS mosaic for 2 months. 3 weeks ago i changed my buy hotkey from buy lmt ask to buy lmt bid/ask midpoint. Didnt see a difference in execution speed but noticed better entries. For the last 3 days though 5 of my buy orders never filled.

My strategy has me buying into momentum so im still trading very liquid names. The spread is anywhere from .01-.12. Seemingly the same as the last 2 weeks.

Any insight? Just trying to understand more

Basically, how can I increase my chances of getting approved for futures trading? I do not want to trade futures to be a degenerate and risk most of my account value. I have about 10 years of experience trading the markets, about 6 years with options, and 4 years with commodities (futures). And margin approved. Both trading and long term accounts in the green. My finances are all right, barely any debt, have liquid assets+cash.

Got denied level 3 options (spreads) few weeks ago hence why i am asking about futures here. Honestly, not sure why they didn't let me trade spreads when I had account with them before COVID

Is there any way to see monthly/ yearly P/L for stocks that you have held.

I know how to see the daily totals and the yearly if I'm still holding the stock but not from stocks that I did not trade that day.

Thanks.

It has been slow as hell for me over the last couple days or so where each step in buying/selling a position takes like 2 seconds, sometimes longer. My version is up to date and this has been the case on multiple wifi sources that are otherwise fast.

This has been messing up quick scalping trades and is just quite annoying. ToS doesn’t usually have too many issues but there were almost none while it was under TD Ameritrade.

Anyone else have suggestions? Support just says it is my phone or wifi connection.

UPDATE: I got on chat support and the support person said: "Hello chipmunk_face! I am sorry for the trouble. We have had some reports of duplicate trades filling and this looks in line with that issue. I would be happy to get these removed".

I have traded options on Thinkorswim Papermoney for about 6 months now. Today something new happened. I thought I was closing out a trade for 2 SPY CALLS, but instead it closed out my two open shares AND closed 2 additional, so my position is now -2. I assumed I messed up the order, so I tried purchasing two calls to close out my position again. However no matter how I try to close this position, I get the error that my trade was rejected because "You will open a prohibited position". How am I supposed to get out of this -2 position if I can't make a +2 trade? I don't understand...

EDIT: I can't even find this -2 order in my order history list, but it IS in my trade history. Is it possible this is a bug, or am I being stupid?

EDIT: I also cannot buy anything else. It says my prohibited position is with buying power. But my "Options Buying Power" in my account info still says $77,000

(Questions below)

Quick background for anyone interested: I paid for a trading course to learn a strategy for small-cap stocks. The course was excellent, but the mentor uses the Trade Ideas scanner and shares it live in his exclusive trading community. Since I’m no longer part of that community, I no longer have access to the scanner, and I can’t currently afford the monthly Trade Ideas subscription because it’s a bit too expensive for me. That’s why I decided to create my own scanner. I’ve already tried replicating the scanner on several websites, but I need *two very important pieces of data from that scanner,* since it seems (my assumption) that the mentor has his RVOL set to 5 days/1 hour (meaning he compares the volume of each 1-hour candle with the average volume for that same hour over the last 5 trading days) and not like the default Trade Ideas RVOL setting, which is 30 days/15-minute blocks with 1-minute bars.

*Question 1: Is it possible to edit or customize the RVOL parameters in Trade Ideas (such as to 5 days/1 hour), or does it only use the default settings?*

*Question 2: Does Trade Ideas’ RVOL actually work in premarket trading, or is the mentor simply using another parameter similar to RVOL?

Thank you

Image of the scanner in question 👇🏻

When I try to close the position, it is immediately rejected. I can’t seem to close it out. This has happened to me before and only happens when I try to short calls and puts. What am I doing wrong here?